Finding the Giver
Sermon Illustration
by Dan Christ

 

When I was engaged to my wife (yea, 21 yrs ago), she and I lived in towns twenty miles apart. I knew nothing of custom of leaving a May Basket on the front door step of someone you care for. So I was quite surprised to hear the doorbell in the dawning hours of the morning on May first. When I came to the door and found a basket of flowers, candy, and bottle of wine, I figured it had to have been my fiance who had left it. So I called out, “Karen”. But she was no where to be seen. So calling out her name as I went out and about the exterior of the house till I caught up with her in the garage. There she kissed me. She explained the custom of leaving gifts on the doorstep, and running away in the hopes that the receiver of the gifts would follow and find the giver. The reliever was supposed to kiss and thank the giver.

I know it is not May Day anymore. But we gather early in May for the Third Sunday of Easter. With Paschal candle lit and voices raised with shouts “Christ is Risen!...He is Risen indeed,” we find the gifts our Risen Lord gives us. His gifts are right at the doorstep of our assembly we call church, right at the door of our hearts, right at the entry to our ears and mouths.

He speaks his word of peace and forgiveness. He demonstrates that he is risen and among us for he hears and our prayers and opens our minds to understand the scriptures. He gives us the gift of himself in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. As we eat his body and drink his blood, he hopes we follow, not merely to kiss him but to love and obey him as we are clothed with power from on high to witness to his love. As we follow him, he kisses us with his Spirit, so that we may be empowered to spread the Easter message: “Christ is Risen!...He is Risen indeed!”